Shattered - Inside Hillary Clintons Doomed Campaign
Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen
Contributed by Marshall Raine
Chapter 12
Summary

After the overwhelming loss in Michigan, Clinton’s reputation and fate were now in the hands of voters in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio (Allen and Parnes 188). Mook could not afford to disappoint her in the remaining states because his job was on the line. However, he was confident that they would win at least three of the five mentioned states. To restore her confidence, Clinton needed to win three of these with a large population of white working-class voters. When the primaries were conducted, she racked up triumphs in all of the five states, including the mid-western industrial states she had feared losing (Allen and Parnes 190). It was a clean sheet that sent a positive message to Democrats, who were not yet convinced she was the party’s nominee. Although she had won most of the states, her reputation and credibility were substantially damaged by attacks from Sanders and Trump (Allen and Parnes 192). The paid speeches she gave at Goldman Sachs, one in June and two in October of 2013, was a point of interest both opponents focused on, which made her seem as she was in the pockets of Wall Street billionaires. Sadly, she could not explain why she gave the paid speeches, and this fact led to significant damage to her credibility (Allen and Parnes 194). Sanders kept calling her corrupt and also highlighted other weaknesses she had, most of which voters already knew (Allen and Parnes 195). This was terribly damaging because it came from a fellow Democrat.

Analysis

In this chapter, the authors seem to be emphasizing the fact that Clinton was the biggest problem of her campaign, and yet she never embraced this fact. She could not explain most of the things she did, which make her appear secretive and hypocritical. This led to many people believing all that Sanders was saying about her, to the point where her national favorability ratings dropped. Although she was winning in many primary states, it was only by very small margins. Clinton blamed Mook for this; but the real problem was with her. Sanders’ accusations had damaged her candidacy, but she did not see this. At the same time, the lucky wins were also blinding her.

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